The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it may be described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present technology.
Fuel cell vehicles represent a promising option for future mobility because they afford high energy efficiency and include a zero emission powertrain platform. All current fuel cell vehicles on market use polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). While the PEMFC technology has been commercialized for decades, it still faces major challenges of high material cost and substantial performance gap.
The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) that occurs at the cathode of PEMFCs has relatively slow chemical kinetics, thus posing an obstacle to cell performance. Even with a platinum catalyst, such cells typically suffer from significant overpotential loss and poor durability. Large amounts of catalyst are often used in order to overcome performance issues, however, this substantially increases cost.
So-called secondary ionomers, ionomeric compositions in direct contact with the catalyst, have been proposed to improve catalyst function and/or durability with lower cost. Improved secondary ionomers would be desirable in order to achieve these goals.